People of our ever-so-growing world of information and technology are beginning to worry about the effects of having easy access to major search engines such as Google. At Carnegie Mellon University, James Morris, dean of the School of Computer Science, has brought about the use of the word “infobesity”. Morris parallels this, along with all the other problems the U.S. faces, with Google results. He does not think that the searches bring about educated searches that really give you what you need, but just junk. Studies have shown that many students have problems with library databases, or just do not care enough to spend quality time searching libraries for the higher quality information, and sometimes more complex systems the library has to offer. Massey-Burzio, department head at Johns Hopkins University’s library, believes that if we take the right steps and begin a fresh approach to the idea of “Google-izing” library databases, libraries around the country could get more students to participate more with their fellow library. In order to make this work libraries need not just faculty, but database engineers as well to help with this collaboration.
I can say first-hand that I have not put forth a lot of effort in getting anything out of the information the library has to offer, although I have never had a class that has made so that I must do that for research until now. Google is the one of the easiest ways to find information, but is it the healthiest? We’ve talked about information literacy and quality of information that Google sometimes portrays with a search. However, I think that if libraries are able to “Google-ize” their databases, they will create a higher percent of willingness of the students to access them. It may take time and money, but that’s what the increase in tuition is for. Benefits would eventually outweigh the costs and faculty and students profit from that.